Surgical Hell

This post might be labelled 'death' - sort of an exaggeration - but not really. I srsly felt like I was about to die from the pain, the pressure and the pulling from my first surgical op for my wisdom teeth (I was only supposed to have one removed - the right bottom jaw area - but the dentist later asked if I wanted my right upper jaw area's wisdom tooth removed as well - for a price of 80 bucks).

Anyway, before I went for the op scheduled for 2:30, I was looking up for advice and stuff online about extracting wisdom teeth. It made me more scared, of course, reading the horror stories others had to face when they extracted their wisdom teeth. Then, I headed out and met my mother to eat a li'l pasta for lunch! I had Pomodoro and a Cream of Chicken soup to go with. My mother got Aglio Olio. I only managed to down about half of my plate though, although I had to eat up since I wouldn't be able to eat after the surgery till much later.

We headed up to the dental clinic once we finished eating, and by then, I was trying hard to keep my composure and not freak out there and then! I listened to music on my phone and read the sequel to The Hunger Games (It's an awesome trilogy, btdubs - can't wait for the movie scheduled for March 23, 2012)! We stayed in the waiting room for quite a while, then I was called in.

My mother asked if I could listen to music while I was doing the surgery and I couldn't - in the end. Pity. It would have been hard for the dentist to work with the the headphones wire and all that.

Then, he and an assistant (he had two assistants later when the surgery began) rubbed a cotton with numbing gel around me right mouth and in my right bottom gum and later injected me with more of the numb stuff under local anesthesia (novocaine? lidocaine? I'm not sure which). It hurt, I've to admit. I could feel the needle piercing my gum, and I was squeamish and my legs were actually kicking on the chair, since I couldn't move my upper body, else something goes wrong. It was over in a few seconds, and my tongue, mouth and lips in the right were all numbed.

They also made me swallow 8 different pieces of pills and tablets! Even the kind I don't usually like to swallow. But it was pretty easy to when they actually numbed everything in my right side. I had to take them down with 2 cups of water though. There were 4 each for antibiotics, 2 for anti-swelling and 2 for painkillers (I got them all prescribed for home, damn)!

Then, he moved me to another room (all the rooms were pretty small - it's a small clinic - so there wasn't much room to move about) for an X-ray of my teeth (just the area around my wisdom tooth thankfully - it actually hurt taking that X-ray!). He inserted a wooden clip that held a rectangular-squarish piece of thing into my mouth, and I had to bite on the wooden piece! It felt hell uncomfortable, but it was over pretty fast.

Once the X-ray piece came out, he called my mother in and started explaining the risks and stuff of extracting a wisdom tooth that was on a piece of paper. He asked if we had questions, and when I asked if I could be put under, he didn't exactly give a direct answer, but said general anesthesia had to be done in hospitals, and there was a slight 1 to 3% chance of not ever waking up from it. That scared me a little, so I didn't say anything else. Then, my mother moved back out to the waiting room, and we got started.

They pulled up a green operating cloth over my body (like the ones used in operations in hospitals!) and I had a bathing cap over my head (LOL) and they covered my eyes with a mask used for covering the nose when you get a cold. I'm glad they covered my eyes though. It'd have been scary to watch them operating on me with all those scary tools.

There were a lot of awful sounds and once in a while, I could feel the pain, and they would put more of the numbing stuff in me. The worse was the drill they used to cut my wisdom tooth out. It felt so horrible and the sound was just dreadful. I opened my mouth wider so it wouldn't accidentally cut my mouth, though I doubt that would happen, unless you purposely close your mouth all of a sudden, of course.

The surgery actually took about half an hour! I thought it'd take an hour, but it was pretty fast. Then, he had to take my X-ray again to see the structure of my teeth and gums now that the bottom wisdom tooth is out. It hurt - more now, since my mouth was stuffed with gauze to absorb the bleeding. I had to take the X-ray twice since the first it didn't penetrate deep into my gums. Ouch.

I took off for the loo afterwards for a pee and returned, and decided to remove my upper wisdom tooth on my right. It was a lot faster, but when they inserted the anesthetic again with the needle, it hurt far worse. I was making tons of awful noises (the kind you'd make if you couldn't really make properly if your teeth were being operated on). Then, with a little more pressure and pulling (no drill this time, thank God), the tooth was out!

We later went to get a haircut a few blocks away and I had my hair cut 2 inches and had my fringe cut short. By then, my gums were starting to hurt and I couldn't exactly change the gauze till I was back home (it was entirely soaked in blood by then)! Anyway, I hope I never have to go through with this again. It was pure hell, I tell ya! I still have one wisdom tooth on my bottom lower jaw (or two?) and hopefully, I won't have to extract that - not ever! Share